1. The Genitive II. There is a small group of nouns, mostly referring to food, which use the suffix -y for the Genitive Singular. Not all nouns referring to food take this Genitive II ending, so you will have to memorize those that do.

The Genitive II (-y)

NomSg

Genitive

Gloss

сахар

сахар-у

sugar

рис

рис-у

rice

табак

табак-у

tobacco

сыр

сыр-у

cheese

чай

ча-ю

tea

шоколад

шоколад-у

chocolate

2. The Prepositional II. The second Prepositional case is marked by an (always) accented ending -y. However, this ending is not used with all the prepositions requiring the Prepositional case but only
with the prepositions на and в. It is not used with the preposition o or any other preposition governing the Prepositional case. So one would say я видел его в саду 'I saw him in the garden' but мы говорили о саде 'we talked about the garden'.

3. Masculine Plurals on -a. The ending -a was originally a Dual Number ending, marking two objects when all Russian nouns had Singular, Dual, and Plural forms. For that reason, almost all masculine nouns which come in pairs (eyes, horns, banks of rivers) use this ending. Now, however, it is not only a wide-spread Nominative Plural ending, it is often attached to new words entering the language, so it is productive. Here are a few common nouns that it is used with.

Nominative
Plural on -a

NomSg

Plural

Gloss

дом

дома

houses

поезд

поезда

trains

дом

дома

addresses

город

города

cities

цвет

цвета

flowers

лес

леса

forests

вечер

вечера

evenings

берег

берега

coasts, banks

голос

голоса

voices

рог

рога

horns

глаз

глаза

eyes

номер

номера

(journal) issues

доктор

доктора

doctors

профессор

профессора

professors

учитель

учителя

teachers

4. Masculine Nouns with Plurals in -ья. Nouns which take -ья as an ending are, fortuntely, few in number. Remember, however, that if a noun takes this ending in the Nominative Plural and the ending is accented, the Genitive Plural will be -ей (remove the soft sign); if the ending is not accented, the Genitive Plural ending will be -ьев.

5. Masculine Nouns with the Singular Suffix -ин. There is also a subregular set of nouns with a singular suffix
that disappears in the plural. Moreover, the Nominative Plural ending for these
nouns is -e and the Genitive Plural ending is zero, i. e. no ending at
all.

Nouns
with Singular on -ин

Singular

NomPl

GenPl

Gloss

англичанин

англичане

англичан

Englishman

гражданин

граждане

граждан

citizen

северянин

северяне

северян

northener

южанин

южане

южан

southerner

киевлянин

киевляне

киевлян

Kievite

Otherwise, these nouns decline normally in the singular and plural.

6. Russian Family Names. Finally, you must keep in mind that Russian family names decline slightly different from other nouns in that they take mixtures of noun and adjective endings.

Russian Family Names on -ов & -ин

Case

Masculine

Feminine

Plural

Именительный

Горбачёв

Горбачёва

Горбачёвы

Винительный

Горбачёва

Горбачёву

Горбачёвых

Родительный

Горбачёва

Горбачёвой

Горбачёвых

Дательный

Горбачёву

Горбачёвой

Горбачёвым

Предложный

Горбачёве

Горбачёвой

Горбачёвых

Творительный

Горбачёвым

Горбачёвой

Горбачёвыми

Notice the following. In the masculine, all the endings are noun endings except in the Instrumental. In the Feminine, all the endings are adjectival except for the Nominative and Accusative. In the Plural, all endings are adjectival except the Nominative.